Wednesday 20 September 2023

A WELSH REBELLION?

A petition set up on the Welsh Senedd website has quickly become the most signed in the history of Welsh government.  Having gathered more than 100,000 signatures since Sunday, it is - not surprisingly - about Mark Drakeford's absurd 20 mile per hour speed limit.

The daft law designates a default 20mph limit for every road in a built-up area, with a handful of exceptions where local authorities have applied for exemptions.  The law was brought in on Sunday and affects around 3 per cent of all Welsh roads.  Needless to say, the law has provoked widespread dismay among drivers and the many businesses who will suffer as traffic backs up and deliveries are delayed.


The petition against 20mph has - at the time of writing - surpassed a quarter of a million signatures.  That's a whopping eight per cent of the entire population of Wales and far outstrips the previous record, which was set in 2020 and again, in opposition to another outrageous Drakeford imposition.  During the scamdemic, Drakeford declared a two week 'firebreak' lockdown and ordered supermarkets to bar the sale of non-essential items.  This led to a bizarre situation in which people were allowed to buy wine, beer and spirits (already subject to astronomical price rises thanks to Drakeford's minimum alcohol price) while being unable to purchase clothes for their children.  The petition against this decree garnered almost 68,000 signatures, a figure now dwarfed by the 20mph petition.  A Facebook group set up in opposition to 20mph has swelled to almost 50,000 members.

The 20mph law is inspired by the same mindset that gave Londoners ULEZ and increasing numbers of UK cities 'clean air zones'.  It has nothing to do with health and everything to do with the imposition of so-called '15 minute cities' where our movements are controlled by the state.  We can but hope the Welsh rise up and fight 20mph just as the infamous 'blade runners' are doing against ULEZ in Greater London.

Some of the new 20mph signs have already been vandalised

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